Nearing the Intermediate Level

Innocent Greyson had no idea that when he began his lessons, the nightmare was only beginning. Even sleeping, he could hear his teachers repeating the same words. "AGAIN." It was the horror of repetition. For two months now, he repeated the same actions over and over again.

Old Man Thraec made him learn to identify as many metals as possible for the first half a month. He gave him an enormous book of metals to memorize then began testing him from sight, then blindfolded him to identify just from touch or smell. Memorizing was easy for Greyson, so this part was not as large of a challenge and learning new information was interesting. The hard part was after learning the metals. He spent the next month and a half smelting metal ore. It was hard work that he still had not mastered. Each ore had a different temperature needed and the old man wanted him to be comfortable using his flame at different temperatures. If he finished melting down ore for his teacher, then he would stand around watching the blacksmith do all the actual work. It was rather disheartening that he had yet to learn any real blacksmith skills. However, he knew that he was getting impatient. Blacksmith skills are intricate and difficult to learn, so he could not expect to only take two months to learn everything that is needed. He had to slow down and really focus and making his basic skills strong. Old Man Thraec was obviously making him repeat the same boring preparation steps so that his foundation is strong and set for him to be able to go further in the occupation. Seeing his slight impatience, Thraec had let him know that even to reach the most basic 1-star level would take at least a year if not more. Maybe because he had only lived five years, one year felt extremely long. It was 1/5 of his life.

Painting was not any better. His teacher's name, he had finally found out to be Castiel. This warm smiling teacher who looked like a gentle scholar was actually the devil in disguise. The first month, he was stuck creating paint. He learned the entire process from scratch. Again and again, he came to the workshop and went straight to the paint room. By the second month, he had begun to paint. However, it was not pictures or shapes. He would take practice paper and teach himself how the colors interact. How to get certain colors by mixing others or to get different shades of the same color. Castiel had him work for hours just learning about how the colors blend together and how they interact. One day would end, then the next time he came around Castiel would just smile warmly and indicate for him to practice with the colors again. He would sigh quietly and keep learning and mastering the basics.

His worst headache was from his flute teacher, Carlyle. The man had scary highs and lows. His moods changed at the flip of a switch and he was constantly throwing Greyson in for a loop. One moment he would be a dignified teacher that looked extremely calm and peaceful when he played the flute, another he would screaming at the top of his lungs at some small mistake. When he performed, he was a gentleman like no other. But when he was offstage, he would insult and badmouth almost everyone he spoke with. Even Greyson felt speechless looking at his obviously fake and two-faced teacher. One thing was for sure, though, Carlyle was extremely passionate about his instrument. Hours upon hours was spent just learning the correct posture for playing the flute. The two months thus far were spent learning the fingering for the notes and the scales. He had a little stick he carried around that would whip Greyson's arms or back when his posture slumped and he would make Greyson practice one note without end if Greyson played it wrong or out of tune. Greyson's was the most shocked that Carlyle himself did not get tire of listening to him play the same note over and over. Everyday of practice was the same practice scales and warm-ups. Carlyle had perfect pitch, as well, so he was always giving Greyson a hard time about finding the correct notes and being in tune. Obviously not as amazing as his teacher, Greyson could still recognize all the basic notes now. Greyson was excited, though, because Carlyle had informed him that he would be learning his first song soon. It was easy, but it was still a song so Greyson was satisfied.

What Greyson didn't know was that his teachers might seem hard on him, but they were more impressed than anyone. In the first place, Greyson was the only student of theirs to last more than one month. Second, he was extremely talented. But most importantly, he was hard-working and obedient. It was not unheard of for children to start training in their occupations early, however, their age made them impatient and quick to give up especially noble children. Greyson was calm and listened closely to all their advice. They also were happy that even if Greyson had complaints, he kept them in his heart. All of the teachers knew they had no patience for whining children. For once, they felt lucky for being the only teachers open for an apprentice.

...

Learning his new occupations did not mean that Greyson suddenly stopped his magic training. He knew he could not get lazy and that power was everything in this world. He could not protect anything if he did not have power. Occupations were fantastic, but to really be safe he need to have a power over others. The important and wealthy occupations like blacksmiths and physicians were all occupations that required magic. Even the most important positions in the military were normally given to magicians no matter how talented and intelligent a normal soldier may be. Magic had to be his main focus.

The reason he could split his attention was because at this time the most important thing for him is to meditate. Breaking through to the intermediate level was a major change so the accumulation took much more time than just breaking through a stage. These days he would meditate every night and he could feel his mana accumulating into an egg. He could feel that the egg would hatch in a week. Reading up on the levels, Greyson recognized this egg as his partner beast created from part of his soul and mana. There was an inexplicable connection with this beast and he could feel the life force growing stronger. He continued to count down the days until he would finally get to meet his beast.

Lyle, being older, had already reached the intermediate level almost right after Greyson's first day as an apprentice. It was a cute lizard like creature that was dark blue with a purple stripe. It could use the same elements as Lyle so water and lightning and at this point was still a spirit without much intelligence. Lyle named him Kallix. Although Kallix was almost like a puppet at this point, as Lyle continued to increase his power, Kallix would become more and more like a real life beast.

The teachers explained that this beast would be their partner in fighting and could cast certain spells instantly. Kallix's innate spells were two thus far. One was similar to Paralyze where he could radiate electricity from his entire body. The second one was a combined water and lightning ball that could blast out of its mouth. As Kallix was still small, this ball was small and could not do much damage. Unfortunately, Lyle did not get a flying beast, however, Kallix would eventually grow from it's current palm size to a horse's size. Kallix could travel very quickly, so although Lyle wouldn't be flying anywhere literally he could still "fly" around on the ground.

Lyle would practice 2 hours a day with Kallix to learn how to coordinate their tag team fighting as he could only allow Kallix to appear for that amount of time. Witnessing Kallix's and Lyle's constant interaction made him slightly envious and Greyson continued pushing himself to quickly break through. However, even geniuses could not break through that quickly as all levels were a matter of accumulation of mana that could help your partner beast to evolve. Novice level was all about nurturing an egg while after the intermediate level is about accumulating mana to help your beast evolve and grow. As the beast grows powerful, so does the magician's mana level.

Greyson silently lamented on when it would be his turn...